His take is that people who have died are in a resting state now, waiting for Jesus to return and make Heaven and Earth one big happy, perfect place. He discounts the rapture, and says that the dead will be restored to their physical bodies for this "new act of creation". This was the Jewish view, but early Greek-speaking Christians injected the concept of a "spiritual" existence, and literature and art (Dante and Michelangelo are singled out) primarily created the concept of heaven and hell that Christians believe in today.
So, one of the fundamental beliefs of Christians is based not on the bible, but rather on the imaginations of men. This brings up one of my biggest gripes against believers: They claim to base their beliefs on the bible, yet they believe in things which aren't mentioned in the bible. (Number two would be ignoring things explicitly stated in the bible, but that's another topic) When asked what sources they have for these extra-biblical beliefs, they fall back on the cop-outs of faith and belief. Apparently this information was just magically transported into the brains of some people. To many Christians, the concept that some tenets of their belief are based on the works of men who never claimed to have been divinely inspired would be impossible to accept, even though these same people would be unable to point out biblical passage to support their belief.
A key point is when he notes that Christians who have recently lost a loved-one will be disappointed in this idea. To me, this is just another way of pointing out that belief in god and an afterlife is a comforting thing when dealing with the loss of friends or family. I've always felt that many believers don't intellectually examine their beliefs because doing so might force them to acknowledge that those who have died are truly gone forever.
